On the Matter of Jinchuuriki
by Alabaster Ink
Summary: In the aftermath of the Mizuki incident, Naruto ponders his position within the village.
Hello all! This is just a little one-shot idea that popped into my head. I probably won't get to write much the next few months as I'm taking summer classes and I need to focus, but please enjoy this in the meantime. It's a bit dark, but those are always the most fun.

Please ignore any spelling or grammar issues. I don't have a beta and sometimes they slip by me.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Enjoy!

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 **On the Matter of Jinchuuriki**

 **One-shot**

Iruka's hitai-ate sits heavily on his brow.

It's different from his goggles – weightier, tighter – and lacks many of the little details and accoutrements added from years of experimentation. He can feel sweat gathering along the fabric, seeping into it, and making his forehead unbelievably itchy. Naruto supposes it will be something he'll get used to, but for now he's content to untie the knot and pull the metal into his hands.

It's dented along the rim, with scratches and scrapes so ingrained into the plate no amount of buffing will ever get them out. The cloth is torn, and he'll need to replace it, but he's reluctant. Iruka-sensei entrusted this to him. It feels like a disservice to immediately go out and make it his, when his teacher still has such a right to it. Even after everything, it doesn't feel like _his_ just yet.

Naruto sighs. His bedroom is dark and quiet in the early morning hours, but his mind it too jumbled for sleep and the solitude is suffocating. Any other time and he would have filled the room with noise, but not tonight; he lacks the energy. He feels his head grow heavy as a haze settles over him. His forehead falls forward, thunking against the hitai-ate in his palms. Skin pinches against the edge and he's sure were he anyone else it'd bruise. Suddenly, he feels nauseous.

 _Anyone else_ , he thinks as his fingers curl around the metal. Anyone else. Anyone normal.

 _Jinchuuriki._

The word loops like a broken record inside his brain.

Normal. _Jinchuuriki._ Shinobi. _Jinchuuriki._ Hokage. _Jinchuuriki._

It taints them all. His dreams burn under the term and he can see them turn to ash in his mind's eye. Everything he's ever wanted seems so much further now than it did before. The excitement, the joy, the pride he'd felt when Iruka told him he'd graduated now feels like nothing more than a distant dream. His future had been so bright. Surely the villagers would acknowledge him now that he's a shinobi.

 _Jinchuuriki._

Naruto snorts.

"Sacrifice," he mumbles into his knees. It feels like such a joke. Just one been karmic joke. A final slap in the face.

Acknowledgement has never seemed so far away.

It makes sense, he supposes. All the little things he's wondered about over the years, but never delved too deeply into. Why he was allowed into the Academy so early. Why he was permitted to continue after the maximum two graduation exams. The interest the Hokage lavished upon him. In hindsight, it makes terrible sense.

 _Jinchuuriki._

The old man hadn't come right out and said it during his explanation, but Naruto isn't dumb. He's spent enough time surviving to understand the importance of what people don't say. Too many people assume his lack of patience equates to ignorance. It does not.

"You, Naruto-kun, are a special type of person know as a jinchuuriki," the Hokage had said within the confines of his office, gently easing the boy into the information. Naruto was still dirty from the events of the night and Iruka's blood had dotted the palms of his hands from that last hug. "Do you know what that means?"

He'd had an idea. The Kyuubi. A monster. The villagers were right. But Naruto held out hope. Iruka-sensei had said he wasn't the demon and he'd wanted desperately to believe him. "Th-the Kyuubi?" He'd managed, struggling to push the words past his lips.

He can recall the sad, almost pitying smile the Sandaime threw at him, and it makes him ill to think about now. The Hokage had nodded, just the barest lowering of his chin, but it had been enough to obscure the top of his face with his crown of office. For the first time, Naruto felt fear sitting in that chair as the red character for 'Fire' stared out at him. Sometimes he forgot this grandfatherly man was tasked with protecting the whole village.

A position like that, it requires a lot of power, both internal and external.

 _Jinchuuriki._

What power comes with that?

"Correct, Naruto-kun," the old man had continued. He'd taken a few puffs from his pipe, filling the room with the cloying smell and Naruto coughed. He'd never liked the scent of tobacco and had told his jiji so on several occassions. "Essentially," Hiruzen continued. "A jinchuuriki is a person inside of whom a bijuu has been sealed. There are varying circumstances in creating one, but the general idea is to protect their village against outsiders. There are nine bijuu in total, and as such, nine jinchuuriki, all spread across the nations."

So he wasn't alone. There were others like him. That information more than anything had brought a sense of peace the boy, but it was short lived. As if attempting to make up for years of secrecy, the Hokage had kept talking. Naruto wished he'd left it at that.

"No one quite remembers how the term 'jinchuuriki' came about, thought there are a few accepted theories. In the most literal sense, it means 'the power of human sacrifice'."

"Sacrifice?" He'd asked, not exactly wanting an answer but too desperate for some sort of meaning to grasp hold of to stop himself.

Hiruzen'd sighed, lowing his pipe to the dish and leaving it there. That was never a good sign. "Yes. The process of creating a jinchuuriki is harrowing and requires a great deal of chakra to perform. So much, in fact, that is it impossible for any one person to contain that much power. Different methods of sealing have different requirements, but they all end essentially the same. In order to ensure that the seal is successful, one person is selected as a primary conduit from which all the others' chakra will flow. This person will direct all their chakra into the seal as well as maneuver everyone else's. Once the sealing is complete, the remaining chakra will return to their owners."

"B-but what about that primary person?" Because if they used up all their chakra…

The Hokage's face said it all. "Yes, a human sacrifice. For such a power to be created, a life must be given in exchange."

The Yondaime.

It fit – horribly, tragically so. The villagers didn't just hate him for the Kyuubi. They hated him for the death of the Yondaime too. He'd never wanted to curl into a ball and cry so badly as he did right then.

The Sandaime hadn't given him time to think, though.

"You are actually the third jinchuuriki in Konoha's history," he'd said, making Naruto's body stiffen. "For security purposes, I cannot release their names to you, but the history of the Kyuubi in Konoha is much longer than people think. As the current container, however, I feel it is your right to know. Also-"

"Where are they?" Naruto had cut him off. His eyes were round and frantic, the information being supplied too much all at once.

Hiruzen either hadn't noticed or hadn't cared. His posture slouched and he'd suddenly looked so much older than he was. He'd shut his eyes briefly. "I'm afraid, Naruto-kun, that the logistics of moving a bijuu from one host to the other is rather traumatic. Jinchuuriki are generally chosen as children for a reason. Their chakra pathways are underdeveloped and malleable, capable of adjusting to the strain a bijuu's chakra puts on them. As they grow, their pathways expand to fit the added chakra.

"Unfortunately, this has a rather undesirable consequence upon extraction. As per all known methods, the consciousness of a bijuu is extracted last, and, as chakra constructs, they are capable of reforming from even the minutest level remaining. This means that if the entire beast isn't removed all at once, the chakra already transferred will become wild and uncontrollable within the new host. It will constantly try to escape and return to the bijuu within the previous container. To prevent this, a bijuu must be extracted entirely, but in doing so, the old jinchuuriki's chakra system will collapse under their own weight. Their pathways will be crushed at the sudden loss and the jinchuuriki will die. Now, I don't tell you this to frighten you, but because you need to know. Many people will claw for your power and it is possible that at some time in the future, Konoha may call upon you to use it…" Naruto had stopped listening. Whatever else the Hokage might have said was lost on him until he was finally allowed to go home.

"The power of human sacrifice," he mumbles again into the silence of his room. A power bestowed upon a child to protect the village at the expense of someone else's life.

It makes sense, sort of. The power it takes for a person to construct the seal and then willingly give up their life to ensure its success must be great. From the viewpoint of a leader, he can see how this would be explained. The necessity of making tough calls was stressed upon in the Academy and he can understand how sacrificing the life of one person to grant protection to the entire village would be a no brainer. But Naruto isn't convinced.

Perhaps he's biased, or overthinking, or just pissed off, but the whole 'power of human sacrifice' thing sounds like bullshit.

The word 'power' can mean many things: the power it takes to make the seal and imprison the beast within, or the power to knowingly give up your life to do so. It can also refer to the power granted to the jinchuuriki by enslaving the demon and the power it takes to keep them contained. Naruto isn't sure about the specifics keeping the Kyuubi inside him, but he doubts it's only a dead person's seal keeping it locked away.

As for the 'human sacrifice'…the thought makes his blood boil. He's sure it wasn't deliberate, but the reverence the Hokage had spoken with when talking about a person giving up their life to seal the beast makes him want to scream. How dare he talk about it, when he has no idea of Naruto's own _sacrifice_. The sealer dies. Boo hoo, so sad. They don't have to live every day afterwards looking at the pain they've wrought on another human being. Naruto won't sit and slander the Yondaime for what he did. He understands the Kyuubi was attacking and the Yondaime had to do something. Apparently, the Kyuubi was Konoha's anyway and Naruto isn't ready to think about how that happened, but the resentment is there. It's festering, just under his skin and he can feel the cold metal of his hitai-ate biting into his flesh as he clenches it tighter.

For Konoha…he traces the leaf symbol on the plate and tries to imagine what his hero must have felt. To knowingly damn the life of an infant, perhaps it's better he didn't live. A man sacrifices his life to give his village the power to protect itself, and a child gives up his life to contain that very power the village needs.

Only people would be so cruel.

A sudden thought strikes him and it's only the fact that he's already sequestered against the corner between the wall and his bed that keeps him from falling. There were two other jinchuuriki before him, people who gave up their lives to seal the beast into another child.

Will that be him?

Someday, far in the future, will the village call upon him to damn another child to this life? Will he be forced to knowingly subject someone else to a life of isolation and hatred? It's a wonder he doesn't throw up at the thought.

There are eight other jinchuuriki out there. Jiji said they're used to protect their villages from people who wish them harm, but who would attack a village containing that much power behind them?

No one. Not unless they had one of their own.

He feels dizzy with the implications. It really is all about what people don't say. The Hokage said he was a protector, but all shinobi are essentially protectors. No, jinchuuriki are different. Their powers are inhuman and destructive. All the stories of the Kyuubi attack say so. They're at peace now, but, despite his lack of aptitude for history, even he knows having three wars in less that a hundred years is excessive and indicative of a shinobi's thirst for blood.

What role do jinchuuriki play in war; where the more destruction you cause your opponent, the better your chances? For that matter, what is their role during peacetime? To deter? To give other villages pause? He knows very little about the nuances of politics and the power plays between villages, but even he can guess the value of a jinchuuriki. His value.

Naruto scoffs, hot air falling from his mouth to mist up his forehead protector.

He never had a choice about becoming a shinobi, did he? Only a jinchuuriki would be let into the Academy early and allowed to take the graduation test as many times as it took to pass.

He'd chosen the profession because the Hokage was one and the Hokage was kind to him. He'd weaved stories of adventure for the little boy, enthralling him with tales of heroism. People loved him and Naruto wanted to be loved. The blond can't even find it in himself to be mad. The Hokage had to take care of the village, and despite his motives, whatever and how many there may be, he'd still shown him kindness.

Naruto has to wonder, however, what would have happened had he not passed? A third attempt might be considered favoritism, but he doesn't think jiji could get a fourth passed the eyes of the villagers. Maybe he would have been given a tutor, or sent into ANBU. Maybe the Hokage would have found some loophole to let him pass this time, only to have the current events fall right into his lap. Naruto doesn't particularly care.

He's shinobi now.

And he's a jinchuuriki.

Can the people of Konoha ever see passed the Kyuubi and see him? He likes to think so. Iruka-sensei sees him, and the very though causes a warmth to bubble into his chest. He acknowledged him as a person. If Iruka can do it, surely others can too. All his dreams and imaginations are falling to ash around him, but he likes to think he still has a chance.

 _Jinchuuriki._

Can a jinchuuriki be Hokage? Will the people accept his protection for what it is, rather than the destructive force he was apparently created for? He hopes so, because being Hokage is about much more than just acknowledgement now.

The Hokage is the absolute authority in Konoha. If he says no more jinchuuriki, everyone will have to listen. No one will wrench the Kyuubi from his body. The village he's fought for won't repay him with death. They won't force him to lie there and mourn the life of another innocent child as his own is torn away.

Naruto comes to a simple conclusion.

There is no power in human sacrifice, only more and more needless death. Even if he has to fight to whole world, he will become Hokage.

There is no alternative.

His life depends on it.

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And that's that. I hope you enjoyed and please review. I appreciate constructive criticism, but please don't flame. I want to improve as a writer and flames don't help at all.

Thank you all for reading and have a lovely rest of your day/night!

~Alabaster Ink


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